Abdulkareem, K.AElebiyo, P.TOlayinka, B.UTiamiyu, B.BKareem, IDanzaki, M.MMustapha, O.T2024-04-172024-04-172023-12Abdulkareem, K.A., Elebiyo, PT., Olayinka, B.U., Tiamiyu, B.B., Kareem, I., Danzaki, M. M. & Mustapha, O.T. (2023). DNA barcoding of Vernonia amygdalina using ITS and RPOC 1 multi gene regions. Savanna Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 5(2):142-156https://uilspace.unilorin.edu.ng/handle/123456789/12083Vernonia amygdalina is one of the most well-known plants found in Africa and Asia and the most cultivated species of the genus Vernonia. The knowledge of how living and extinct species are related to one another supports much of evolutionary Biology. Therefore, this study was aimed at carrying out the molecular identification of Vernonia amygdalina using ITS and RPOC1 regions. In this study, the identification and phylogenetic analysis of Vernonia amygdalina was done through amplification of the DNA using ITS and RPOC1 primers. The ITS and RPOC1 sequences were compared with the existing sequences in the NCBI GenBank using BLAST searches then the sequences were aligned and maximum likelihood and parsimony trees were constructed using MEGA11. The result showed that ITS sequence length is 627bp while the RPOC1 sequence is 422bp. The blast result for ITS primer sequence showed 93% - 96% similarity against 6 accessions, 70% - 74% against 8 accessions, 64% - 69% against 6 accessions, and 82% similarity against 1 accession. Whereas the RPOC1 primer sequence gave 96% - 99% similarity against all accessions in the BLAST results. Vernonia amygdalina, Hirpicium diffusum, Cyanthillium cinereum, Sonchus ustulatus, Olearia odorata, and Olearia laxiflora were observed as out groups for their respective trees with the RPOC1 primer producing the highest percentage with all BLAST matches ranging from 96% to 99%. This indicates that the RPOC1 primer produced higher identification to species level.enDNA BarcodingVernonia amygdalinaITSRPOC1Multi loci geneArticle